1) Nobody gives a rat's ass about anyone but themselves. The "I want what I want and I want it now" attitude is very predominant--who gives a rip about the next generation--we'll be dead by then.
2) What Liz Skywalker said. Even without cloning, people still insist on reproducing themselves like rabbits and suppressing birth control and abortion. The Earth will reach its maximum capacity (10 billion people) in 30 years or less at the rate we're going.
3) People love guns and war. People can't leave other countries alone and let them govern themselves as they please--we always have to think our way is best and try to force other people to follow it. It's OK to interfere in the case of human rights violations, but otherwise, let it go.
4) Americans are six percent of the world's population and use one-third of its resources.

1) While there still are many that give a damn about the rest of the world, and act that way, the combination of American culture, German philosophy, and the overwhelming power of the advertisement industry are causing people "to want what they 'don't really want and to want it now". There are thousands of people aroudn the world who are going hungry, yet have a TV in their living rooms telling them what their priorities should be.

2) People are still breeding like rabbits. But in a 3rd world country, this is okay... because the cost (in natural resources) of one person is almost nil. The cost in natural resources for one single "supercountry" citizen is more than 100 times as much as say, an Australian Aborigine, or a Kalahari Kuun nomad. Canada has a tidy population of 30 million... but as the second largest country in the world, pretty soon we're going to be invade from all directions (especially the south) by real-estate brokers.

3) It all comes back to TV. People want what they shouldn't necessarily have. Money, first of all. Luxury follows. When the message is broadcast that these things are worth dying for, there's never going to be an end to those willing to make that big sacrifice for the almighty dollar. Aside from personal greed, excessive patriotism and ethnic feuds are going to drive this race to extinction, especially now in developping countries which are spending their entire GNP on advancing their nuclear and biological weaponry.

Canada has 30 million people? Scary statistic here--North Carolina has six million people--and that's one state. And yet a friend of mine who has three children had to attend classes before a doctor would give her a tubal ligation. No doctor will give me one either, even though being pregnant would be dangerous for me--because I "might want to take the chance" someday. My ass. Anyway, I got off on a tanget.

As far as the advertising industry--it makes me sick that people are starving in the world, and yet people I work with are looking in magazines at ads for $700,000 boats. I made the comment, "Do you know how many people that would feed?" The response was, "That's the last thing I think of when I'm getting ready to buy something luxurious." Go figure.

I chose bleak because of the rate of breeding and the people breeding. As one of my sayings is the stupid people are breeding. For example how many times have you seen a teenage girl have a kid thus not letting her go to college. And how many times have you seen a relatively young person have like 8 kids already. At this rate the smart people will be outnumbered by like 98%. That means the dumb will elect their own and you will have dumb people running the world then it will ALL go to hell.

What PowerfulJedi said. Also, while some people actually want a lot of kids, a good portion of the people who have several of them do so because they're not informed enough about birth control. This will continue to be a problem as long as American conservatives don't want us to be informed about birth control, or don't want it to be available.

"The only alternative is sterilization. Now, who's a willing candidate for that? "

*raises hand* Me! But as I said earlier, I believe it was in this thread, I can't find a damn doctor anywhere who will sterilize me, even though pregnancy would be dangerous, because they're dumb enough to think I might actually "grow up" (I'm almost 30) and change my mind and want to chance it. Puh-lease.

In some cases over-population is a 2 edged sword. Some people might just plum too many kids. While others will conceive but then kill the baby off in abortion. That's not the answer. While many Catholics believe birth control is sinful us Lutherans do not.

It's bleak no matter what. It's like a mountain. In my guessing this good, round and blue circle we call home is in it's last times. But I don't think we'll live to see the end of it. Our grandkids will probably.

AT60... at the risk of getting my ass put through a thresher- you're sounding positively American. You think the solution to the world's overpopulation problems is to develop 3rd world countries to the level of Canada and the US? And secondly to start more wars, to kill people off?

The reason that overpopulation is a problem, is that we are destroying the environment, and using more resources than we replenish. Take this example: pretend we have a nice big war and kill of 50% of the world's population, right now. Now, "develop" the remaining 3 Billion so that every one uses the same amount of resources as citizens in "developped nations". Imagine the effect that 3 Billion Americans, with their lust for consumption, would have on our environment! The world would grind to a halt in probably less than a month, I bet you.

The amount of resources used, and waste generated by a single "Developed" citizen outnumbers that of a healthy (not starving) aborigine by about 1000 to 1. So even if we shot 5 billion people into space, the Earth could not support the remainder if they all lived the wasteful, harmful lives that North Americans (and other space age nations) do.

As far as war being good for the environment, I seriously hope you were joking. The population itself isn't the problem the environment faces-- it's the effect of that population. Do you seriously believe that more fires, more toxic waste, more chemical weapons, more war-time economy, more fossil-fuel use, more nuclear danger, etc. etc. etc. is a GOOD THING for our natural environment? Oh my god, I hope they never let you near any kind of authority.

"The amount of resources used, and waste generated by a single "Developed" citizen outnumbers that of a healthy (not starving) aborigine by about 1000 to 1. So even if we shot 5 billion people into space, the Earth could not support the remainder if they all lived the wasteful, harmful lives that North Americans (and other space age nations) do."

If any of you have read the Jurassic Park novelization you'll find that this is sort of the Chaos theory. We're trying to predict whatwill end up destroying the Earth yet we all agree that the future is bleak. It's sorta like weather, you know bad stuff is gonna happen sooner or later so there is no use predicting and then is the theory that whatever goes up goes up comes down. So no matter what we're screwed, the unanswerable question is how we get screwed.